3 Ways To Prevent A BACKSLIDE On Your Vision Gains
Have you ever noticed your eyesight improving, only for it to slip back again? It’s frustrating, right? You’re not alone. Many people experience this cycle because they think vision improvement is just about doing eye exercises—but real, lasting transformation comes from three core aspects.
Why can vision improvement backslide?
If you’ve worked on improving your vision naturally, you know how amazing it feels to see clearly without relying on glasses or contacts. But then, seemingly out of nowhere, you backslide and your eyesight worsens again. Why does this happen? I’ve seen this happen so many times—people start seeing progress, and then they slip back without knowing why.
Hint: Maybe you’re going through a very stressful time—moving, changing jobs, dealing with financial pressure, or managing personal loss. When stress piles up, our self-care routines (including vision habits) often backslides.
This backslide even happened to me when I moved from the United States back to Germany as a single mom with two pre-teen daughters. I was super stressed, tried to be perfect for them during this challenging transition but totally abandoned my already minimal self-care routine. The blur that seemed to appear overnight was intense. Being in my mid-forties didn’t help. Two years later I was still struggling, having to pull out my reading glasses on rainy, gray skies in Hamburg (we have a lot of those there). Only later, when I started my teacher training in the Bates Method did I slowly understand why that happened, and how to improve again. For me it was the intense stress, fear of the future, and worries about the kids.
From clients, I’ve heard everything from going through a challenging divorce, a death in the family, a spouse getting sick or themselves dealing with health or money issues… Anytime your stress levels intensify a LOT, a BACKSLIDE in vision is often almost guaranteed if you don’t apply the following three core aspects.
The 3 Core Shifts you need to implement to avoid a backslide
True, lasting vision improvement isn’t about daily eye exercises—it’s about deep integration through these three key shifts:
- Mindfulness
- Vision Habits
- Teaching what you learn
#1 Mindfulness: Fully experiencing your vision practices
Vision improvement isn’t about doing eye exercises like a workout routine in the gym where it’s all about reps and load. It’s about relaxing your brain and body to work together. If you’re just going through the motions without truly engaging, you will not see real results and your minimal gains will backslide.
How to implement it: Do your vision routines with mindfulness and awareness.. For example, if you’re practicing the long swing technique, instead of just swinging your body in a half circle, slow down and notice how your eyes make the tiny little jumps called saccadic eye movements. See how the whole world seems to move the opposite way. Notice if there is a difference between swinging to the right or the left. Check how your body moves, and whether you’re truly relaxing into the motion. And then, do all practice also with eyes closed, noticing if you feel more, less or the same amount of movement. Each technique has the opportunity to uncover countless clues to your vision and where you need to work on to improve and avoid a backslide. Engaging with awareness makes all the difference.
#2 Daily Habits: Embodying a new way of SEEING
Good vision is about how well you use your eyes all day. Many people only think about their eyesight when their eyes feel strained or their vision gets blurry, rather than turning the techniques learned into automatic daily habits that support clear vision and avoid a backslide.
How to implement it: People with great vision do these automatically. Here are some easy-to-implement habits that will help you go to prevent a backslide.
- Blink every 2-3 seconds to keep your eyes moist and relaxed.
- Go outside first thing in the morning to get natural light
- Set up your computer at a window so you can shift focus easily
#3 Teach what you learn: The fastest path to permanent gains
The best way to make vision habits stick? Teach them to someone else!
According to Edgar Dale‘s Cone of Experience, we remember:
10% of what we read
20% of what we hear
30% of what we see
50% of what we see and hear
70% of what we discuss with others
80% of what we personally experience
95% of what we teach others
Now I don’t know if that is actually true, but many studies have shown that teaching others versus just learning for yourself dramatically improves retention of the materials learned. And one study showed that just being told you have to teach others, improves recall of the material and being able to answer more questions in tests correctly. See other studies and article links below.
How to implement it: ASK yourself: “Which vision practice, technique, tool or idea is so interesting and valuable that it would be worth teaching to others?” And, “How would I go about teaching this to someone else in a way that has a high chance of them loving and implementing it?”
Recap: The people who keep their vision clear aren’t just practicing—they’re experiencing, embodying, sharing and teaching others. If you find yourself backsliding, ask yourself: “Am I truly mindful in my practices? Am I making vision-friendly habits a lifestyle? Am I deepening my learning by actively sharing and teaching it?”
With these three core strategies, you can maintain naturally clear vision and avoid frustrating backslides.
Watch the full episode of Clear Vision Wednesday here.
